“The Love of All Above” : Feb 4th @ Queens Nails Projects : SF : CA

Queens Nails Projects : 3191 Mission St. SF, CA, 94110

Saturday Feb. 4th Artist Reception 6-8pm/ Performances 8pm-12am

"It is coming up quickly and steadily, much like the dawn of a new day.  Bay Area artist and personality John Felix Arnold III has his first official show of 2012 opening on Saturday February 4th and runs until February 21st.  He will be exhibiting a solo array of mixed media paintings and a new installation piece (the namesake of the show) that will act as an altar piece as well as a stage and vehicle for a night of live performances fromDaylight Curfew ( a crew all residing in California but all originally from New York City consisting of Cassettes Won’t Listen, Bisco Smith, Grizzly Grimace, and Turnbull Green),Kool Kid Kreyola, and a new husband and wife vocal duo named Him Downstairs.  The Love of All Above is a continuation of Arnold’s “Unstoppable Tomorrow : The World of Future Antiquity” series and promises to be an unforgettable experience to kick off 2012.  More info will be posted as it draws near.  Here is the official show flyer as well as a link to the press release.  Please contact felixthethird@gmail.com for media contact."

Please Click on the Link Below for  downloadable Press Release.

The Love of All Above PRESS RELEASE 2012

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" A Conversation With Charles Mingus About the Inevitable End of the World as we Know it From the Standpoint of a Historian Way Later"

So I am about to put the finishing touches on what I feel to be the most fulfilling piece of mine to date.  It is a culmination of specifically the past five or six years of foresight into what I want to make art about and how I want to make it tuned with the vivid memories or rust and decay I experienced throughout my child hood and my overall view on the progression of humanity in the world we live in presently.  The piece is an 8'x3' panel made of all found pieces of debris creating an assemblage canvas which I then attacked with a multitude of media.  In short I put a lot of heart and soul and love and inspiration, a lot of life experience and happiness and anguish all rolled into it, and long hours at night into this baby.

Not only is it a painting but it is also an integral component to the Altar Piece Installation I am making in Queens Nails for the awesome show I have coming up entitled "The Love of All Above".  A new installment in the Unstoppable Tomorrow : The World of Future Antiquity Series, "The Love of All Above" aims to integrate the paintings and detail work into the actual installation more so there is really no distinction between the Installation Piece and the indiviual paintings that can exist outside of it while it is presented as an environment.  This will in turn create a truly more realized piece of my imaginary future world for the viewer to experience.  Also the performances will be conceptually and aesthetically streamlined with the art piece in a true collaborative effort creating a page out of the graphic novel future/past world of Unstoppable Tomorrow, that I set out to have the audience revel in.  There will be performances by Joel and Rhea St. Julien, the Daylight Curfew Crew, and Kool Kid Kreyola who will also be helping in the production of the installation piece.

This new panel has been an enormous breakthrough in that I have realized the culmination of concepts,ideas and techniques I have been trying to bring together and they are all finally working to create this world in the eye of the viewer on many levels.  It can exist on its own as an art piece, but will truly be understood when it is seen built into one of the flanks of the installation, as a narrative, historical and mythological story telling device to aid in the full experience of praise and performance for "The Love of All Above".  If you think back to ancient Japanese wall tapestries or screens depicting battles, and daily life, or back to Durer with his prints of biblical monstrosities or the four horsemen, or even back as far as the cave paintings, then you look at comic books, and and super hero related material, or even sports memorabilia with its larger than life, almost Greek God qualities, you will see the common threads things being depicted that one day have an importance and a legend or mythology behind them that is highly influential and sometimes God like.  Taking this into consideration one will begin to understand that by creating this piece in the way it was realized, I am making my own epic, narrative stamp to be translated into myth hopefully a thousand years from now, but in the present it acts as a cohesive story telling platform through a multi media art practice that can exist on many levels for a wide range of audiences and demands thought and interaction in some form wherever and however it is encountered in its lifetime.  It was derived from all of the eight million stories in my mind while listening to a documentary about Charles Mingus and how his music is all about the conversation he is having with his fellow players and the audience.  Nuff Said.  "The Love of All Above" , February 4th, 2012, Queens Nails Projects, more to come...Felix

I Like the Part Where I Make Stuff and Think About Making New Stuff at the Same Time.

"Capiquarius : Untitled 2" : 5'x4' : Mixed Media on Wood : Piece just finished in new Lake Merrit Studio : Oakland : CA : 2011

I was just about to post these images of new paintings for you to check out when I ran across a Warholian interview that was done before Past From the Blast this last March.   There was a question I had to answer, a pretty basic artist interview question that I definitely let loose on.  The question was "where do you find inspiration?".  Well I have to say my views on "inspiration" in this article still hold true today, just the details and specifics have become a little more refined.  It was fun just reading this because it reminded me of how much sheer energy and determination I was feeling when I answered these from a coffee shop on the edge of China Town and North Beach.

I feel even more energy and determination now, but it is a more solid, fulfilled, and calm energy in a way.  It feels less frantic and more concentrated.  But yeah this quote has been true pretty much my whole life and continues to be today.  The work that is coming forward and evolving now is getting intense, I am having lucid visions and crazy insight in to different worlds while laying in bed or on the BART train lately.  I am starting to envision projects I could have never dreamed of in the past, having ideas and connections float through my mind that are making me breath deeper and raise the sky on what is possible, meditating and literally seeing/visualizing paintings, performances, costumes, hearing soundscapes I want to create, and tying it all together more coherently than ever before.  Understanding ways to visualize and actually create representations of these visions is becoming a reality.  The force of inspiration and determination feels amazing and warm flowing through me.  I'll be updating you and explaining things every step of the way as we progress into 2012. Love-Felix

From Warholian Interview March 3rd 2011 -

"4). Where do you find inspiration?

Go out on Market street and watch the buses, the rail, the cars, the business people, the homeless, the bike messengers, the construction workers, the beautiful angsty and hip students, the cops, the criminals, the models, the agents, the professors, the motorcycles, newspapers with images of war on them: turn on the news and watch a war report, or a story about gun control: go somewhere warm on a rainy saturday night where people are together the shield themselves from whats outside and gather and be thankful to have a place to create a dialogue, and laugh and listen to music. Think of a couple making love all night long in their apartment, going at it, while outside a bus breaks down and a street performer plays her cello. If you were to leave a camera on these events with the lens open for sometime so all the movement swarmed together like an amoeba and instead of a snapshot of one moment you had a freeze frame of all of these man-made, human, and natural elements moving and working and fighting and fucking and loving and yelling and eating and dancing and laughing in a big swarming, creature, everything mixed together to create one interrelated energy. That is where I get my inspiration. That and making marks on a page has always been my forte."

"Lady of the Lake : Sittin Pretty : Untitled 1" : 5'x4' : Mixed Media on Wood : Piece just finished in new Lake Merrit Studio : Oakland : CA : 2011

Gestation : Size Undecided : Mixed Media : Still in Progress

On Like a Light!

I finished a painting the other night, I got a call from a very good person requesting a similar piece for a commission, I am stoked!  I just wanted to share my enthusiasm with you right now.  Going to Queens Nails Tonight to finally make something happen over there.  Forward motion is in full effect!  Oh by the way, the model that posed for this piece is a truly amazing human being and I send out massive love and respect due to her!  Couldn't have made this without her energy involved.-Felix The Piece is yet un-named.  This is a detail of it.  Enjoy.

"In the Moment" @ The Luggage Store Gallery Nov. 5th was AWESOME!

On Nov. 5th 2011 a multitude of people from various backgrounds and walks of life descended together upon one of San Francisco's, and the world's, most important galleries of all time.  The Luggage Store has been around for over 25 years and has made a permanent mark on the international art scene and the world's creative stage from its inception.  It has helped to get the careers and exposure lights running on many artists that I myself consider to be heroes and icons.  Artists that have made me believe in making art my life, have challenged my thoughts and views, have made me see in new ways, artists whose work ethics I am in sheer awe of, whose sense style and visual language enthrall, whose message through media have made me strive and work hard to become part of this amazing conversation that we as artists have with one another and the world for our entire lives, simply through what we love to make and do. Twist, Swoon, Maya Hayuk, Mark Bradford, Thomas Campbell, Monica Canilao, Stella Lai, The Date Farmers, Christopher Burch, APEX, t.w.five, Kool Kid Kreyola, Os Gemeos, Cheryl Dunn, and many, many, many more were represented in this vibrant exhibition, benefit, and fundraiser to help the Luggage Store's many arts programs and community involvements.  From the mobile projection unit to its curatorial residence, from the Tenderloin National Forest to its artist in residence, volunteer, intern, living wall, just to name a few, they continue to grow and give a voice and supportive environment to minds from all different spheres. This place and the people who founded it, Laurie Lazer and Darryl Smith, have been a beacon of change, love, communication, and  positive energy in a wild and lawless part of one of America's last creative hot beds, for legions of creative minds young and old whom hold it in the highest regard.  I had the pleasure and honor of helping them personally with the creation of "In the Moment" as the designer of their online invite and printed invite card, as well as running around the day of the show helping hang, catalogue, and be a general "get this done now" guy. I also had the honor of putting an 8ft painting from my latest series in the exhibition which honestly was a dream come true.  The work in the show speaks for itself and the exhibition really marks years upon years of dedication and creativity in the Bay Area and beyond.  I made some amazing new friends like Stella Lai, Mari Hashimoto, Yarrow Lazer-Smith, GiGi, Hashimi, and Marsea Goldberg.  I got to hang out with great old friends and fellow artists like Chistopher Burch, Ricardo Richey, Ara Jo, Chris Shaher, Daisy, and Kool Kid Kreyola.  We all talked and laughed and told stories and discussed new ideas and concepts about the future, bleu cheese, Basquiat, Sheepskin City, bagels, lovage, and huggage.   Finally I took some great photos that I share with you here!  It was a wonderful night and event and please check out the show before it comes down on the 26th, it is worth every moment you will spend there.  Thank you Darryl and Laurie for all you have done for the arts and those who make it their lives!  The Luggage Store, to infinity and beyond!